Fashion Strikes Groningen!

Hoi family!

Susi and I were going to go on an adventure to the museum and to the Martini Tower (giant tower you can go up and take pretty pictures in)...but they were closed...

Apparently everyone here continues to celebrate Easter on Monday…So, Susi and I have been rummaging my cabinets for food, and wandering the streets like homeless urchins…awesome!

While homeless, we came upon some glorious fashion choices.

Bald spot, pink shirt, red puffy vest and some killer flower rainboots (was not raining.)

...Awesome...

After discovering the beauty of costumes and…interesting outfit choices, we wandered some more, looked up movie times, and came back home. We will go out tonight for dinner, then see a movie (Alice in Wonderland 3D!) and then we will try and find some sort of a jazz café, and be all classy for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow, we will go to the museum, so get ready for some strange pictures from there!

I love you all!

EGGIES!

Here is Susi and my Easter tree and eggs!

Tree

The Easter bunny's gifts...he is so considerate.

My "owl" egg

My "winnie the pooh tree" egg

My "birdy" egg

Susi's "special" egg

Susi's "flag" egg

Susi's "decapitated head" egg

HAPPY EASTER!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Well golly…It looks like another week has passed.

First of all…

HAPPY EASTER!

(creepy bunny Susi got for me)

I hope you all will have fun hiding/finding your eggs today…I will compensate by consuming an unreasonable amount of chocolate…YAY.

…hmm…updates?

Academics:
-classes are over…
-have two weeks to prepare for the exams…
- I hope for some sort of natural disaster/technical error to make test-taking impossible for the remainder of my visit…

Social:
Susi is here…

Other:
Lame week. Nothing happened…


Okay…so…What really has happened…Well, Friday was the flower market in the center, which is the day I took all the pictures you will see. Susi has family in Groningen (her German uncle married a Dutch woman, so they now live here, and have been here for many many many many years). On Friday we went to Susi’s uncle’s book signing at a local bookstore. Afterwards, we went to their house for dinner (cheese fondue…mmmmm).

Saturday we decided to make an Easter tree, because that is something they do around here (where you paint eggs, then hang them on a branch that has been cut from a tree)…yet we got distracted half-way through, so it is not finished yet. But we are going to have some delicious omelets today due to such an adventure (making an eater tree = adventure).

Now today is Sunday, we just woke up…and I have no idea what we will do.

Sorry for such a late post…I seem to not realize that a week has passed until it has...passed. yeah. Maybe if something super awesome/interesting would HAPPEN then I would write more…but nope…

Okay…I love you all, and Happy Easter!

The city center

The Academy building- This is where I went to get my classes figured out my first day

Susi.

Just some cheese in a local grocery store...no biggie.

SPICES!!!

The croweded Fish Market, with some super jolly policemen

The Martini Tower

Flowers at the flower market

A car near my house...

A Week Later...

Hola mi familia!

Well...a week has passed since I last posted...so I figured I should update, even if there is nothing to update on...

Well...First, Academics:

Took my statistics intermediate test...I have yet to see the result, but I do not think it will be very good...The test was confusing, and the wording of the problems seemed odd to me...plus, I found many typos...

Social stuff:

I went to see a band the other night, and they were playing at a venue called "Vera" which is apparently where many famous bands, such as Nirvana, played before they became famous...It was very fun.

Random things:

still painting... it is taking forever...

The background is a portion of the painting-in-progress...then I got bored so I painted what I want the bird in the background to look like on my hand...But now I have decided to change the colors...

yeah...that's about it...boring week. Sorry!

In the future:

My friend, Susi who is studying in Bamberg, Germany, will be coming to visit next Thursday and will stay for a week.

Next week is the last week for classes of this semester then we have a two week break where we prepare for finals which will be happening on the 19th and 20th of April...

When the weather gets better, the girls want me to paint a mural outside in the garden area of sunflowers, so that will be something fun to do when the weather gets nicer, and all the flowers are blooming!

I still miss you all...

Random Post

Okay...here we go. Random post with random pictures...

First of all, Grandy- I told you I would get images of the shower-room, so those are below. It is very hard to get a good image, because the room is large enough to stand in front of the sink or move your body awkwardly to try to get into the shower...

second...I bought paints and and some unstretched canvas, and I am going to start painting. I need to stretch the canvas around the posts of my lofted bed first...but it will be good, I think this painting will take a long time to finish (I am going to do some stitching with a needle and thread after I finish the painting)...yup.

Third, I was wandering around the other day, and I found an alley between two houses, so I took a picture.

Fourth- Gave a presentation in my Business Supply Chain Marketing class, and won (didn't know it was a competition)...prize? four chocolate eggs. Score!

The End.

LOVE YOU!

Amsterdam for the Weekend

Hello family!

I have returned from the weekend in Amsterdam with Marie, my father, and Will. They are currently headed to Belgium…and not to Groningen. :(

We had a lovely time in Amsterdam. Marie took quite a few pictures, and I took less than fifteen. It was understood that I have lost camera privileges when our family goes on vacation, because all my images lack people (woopsies…). Marie said that she wants pictures to document that they were actually there (not just an image of a pretty tree or building :P ). The images to follow are relatively boring, and I am sorry about that.

We saw Amsterdam, did a lot of shopping, and other touristy things. I have decided I must go back on my own/with a friend to visit the museums (for a particular European who reads this blog- “museums” is the plural of museum in English. So there. :P )

Mom- I got you a present…but you don’t get to see it for 5 months. Haha

Grandy- I’ve got your birthday present in mind! Haha, finally, I found something you don’t have (and don’t need.) victory is mine!

A document of the Griffin-Odom-Korf Amsterdam adventure:

Thursday- My father and I arrive in Amsterdam at about 6pm or so. I am super tired (had a headache the whole weekend), so, being the lame person that I am- I sleep. This night was low-key, Marie and Will had yet to arrive. Did nothing.

Friday- My father and I go to get Marie and Will at the airport. Their plane is delayed, then it sits forever on the runway, then it finally pulls into the gate. We all ride a train back to Amsterdam Central, unload at the room, then go out for a cup of coffee. We wander around for a bit, see “The Nine Little Streets” which have quite a few little boutiques that Marie and I enjoyed looking in (I particularly enjoyed a thrift store with a mass amount of clothes that would look absolutely hilarious on…and also I found a mask, which I did not buy, and now I regret not doing so. It was just something silly, but I liked it.) Marie and Will (namely Marie- Will slept like a baby on the plane) start to feel the effects of jet-lag so we have an early dinner, and then call it quits.

Saturday- Late to rise. My father runs next door to get pastries, and a cup of coffee (and by cup, I mean 4-6 ounces of coffee. :P European shocker!) then runs back out to get Marie another cup of coffee. We get out, Marie and I do a little shopping (little = hours) while my father and Will go to a Cannabis museum…yes… We meet up and eat lunch. Then, because we are all tired we go on a boat tour of Amsterdam (where the majority of my pictures come from). We then go back to the room, rest, and head out later for drinks and dinner. After dinner we wander some more, to questionable areas of town. We end up at a cute little café on a side street with delicious coffee and desserts (it is 11 pm by now) before heading home. Sleepy time.

Sunday- Late to rise…again. Vacation time = sleepy time. We had a mission to go to see the museums today. Get to the Rijksmuseum, and see that there is a long line. Decide to go to the Van Gogh museum. We are standing in line at the Van Gogh when we realize that the only person who wants to go into that museum is Marie…so instead, we go into the gift shop. Haha. After that, Marie and I wander the most expensive shopping district in Amsterdam (where we find out that you have to be the size of Audrey Hepburn to wear anything in the shops) while my father and Will go sit down at another café. After Marie and I realize that it is questionable if either of us can fit into the clothes, we join my father and Will, eat a lovely lunch (and the first giant cup of coffee I have had since being in Europe- thank you Café Boven). We end up walking all the way back to our hotel- and shopping more along the way (dang…that was soooo much shopping. Yikes.) We get back by 5pm, I pack, and head off to the train station with my father to come back here.

Now, I have no idea what they are doing…hopefully not getting lost and enjoying themselves. I am back to studying and freaking out again. :(

I am waiting for something super exciting to happen to make my blog more interesting…perhaps I should go partying or something. Hah…

I hope you all are having a lovely time with spring break. I know Aunt Mary is in Virginia with Patricia! And Jenny is partying it up with Grandy and the Norman crew. I miss you all so much!

I love you!

This is the Amsterdam Crest, it consists of three horizontal X's (not symbolizing the red light district or anything risque) and a Crown.

Darned reflection.

The tiniest canal in Amsterdam. You can see that the houses face straight out into the canal- they have doors that would open into the water.

squished houses.

An art pieces in one of the galleries I wandered into

House Party

Hoi!

All the girls in my house + their families + the landlord and his family = cramped but wonderful!

Yes, because the Belgium girl's birthday was on Wednesday (she just turned 21), her family came up from Belgium to visit her. Also, Vera's (the Dutch girl, who is 22) father came today to install the new washing machine (the other one was broken.)...then the landlord came, and his daughter is the girl whose room I am taking, so she was here as well, and then my father showed up, and it was one cramped extravaganza.

One of the girls yelled "We need a group photo!" so we all went outside to take pictures. Thus, you are about to see extra images of the house, and my roommates with their fathers.

Other than that- I must keep studying. I have a lot to try and teach myself, and very little time to do it in.

I love you all!

(for Grandy- what it looks like under my bed)

(washing machine and "oven")

(The backyard- right now it looks gross, but that is because it is winter...obviously.)

(the bathroom...)

(The kitchen- really hard to get a better picture than this. Use your imagination)

(What it looks like as you enter the house)

The girls and the fathers- From left to right: Vera (The Dutch) and her father, then it is the girl whose room I am taking and her father (the landlord), then it is he girl from Belgium and her father, and you know the last two...and like usual, I'm only one looking in the wrong direction. Go me.

(All the dads- The Dutch, another Dutch, a Belgium, and the American)